The EPA will no longer require oil and gas companies to report their methane emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency will
no longer require oil and gas companies to report information
related to their methane emissions, according to a new directive
issued March 2.

In a press release, the agency announced that, effective
immediately, an Obama-era information collection request has
been cancelled.

The
original request, sent to companies in November 2016,
required oil and gas producers to provide a broad range of
information about their methane emissions
and equipment, as well as the feasibility of controls
designed to limit methane release.

That information was being collected as part of a long-term
project to regulate methane emissions from oil and gas
production, an initiative that grew out of
an agreement between Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau.

While the gas accounts for a small portion of overall
greenhouse gas emissions and doesn't stay in the atmosphere
as long as carbon dioxide, it traps thirty
times more heat per ton than carbon dioxide does. Climate
scientists are still working to understand how methane
emissions fit into the overall climate change puzzle.

In the EPA's press release, the agency explained its decision to
end its information-gathering initiative, writing:

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt would like to assess the
need for the information that the agency was collecting through
these requests. This action also comes after the agency received
a letter on March 1, 2017, from nine state Attorneys General and
the Governors of Mississippi and Kentucky, expressing concern
with the pending Information Collection Request for Oil and Gas
Facilities.

“By taking this step, EPA is signaling that we take these
concerns seriously and are committed to strengthening our
partnership with the states,” said EPA Administrator Pruitt.
“Today’s action will reduce burdens on businesses while we take a
closer look at the need for additional information from this
industry.”